Premature Babies.......

It honestly just really depends. I have heard that sometimes they will be behind on development skills, but that isn't always true because I use to work with a little boy who was born only weighing 2 lbs and when he was 5 years old he was the smartest in his class and very intelligent. Although he was always the smallest of the bunch, he was a smart little guy. And I have heard that sometimes premature babies have problems with colds and sometimes can develop the RSV Virus and or have upper chest problems and breathing problems, but you just never know. So the only thing to do is just wait it out. Your sisters baby might not have any problems at all. She might have to deal with always being the smallest, but then again, she could grow normal. Hope this helped. :)

Some preemies have no problems at all others can develop problems over time it is hard to say what to expect. My preemie (Born at 30 weeks) is a happy healthy almost 3 year old. He has no real problems but I think he is slower in some things then other kids his age. That might be due to his prematurity, or simply due to the kind of child he is. Just keep an eye out on her development and if you are worried about anything have it checked out.

I had a premature baby of my own. He was 8 weeks early and my doctor's do say that they will be a little behind other babies their own age. Just keep the check ups and everything and just let her know that if she thinks something is wrong then get it checked out. My son has a lot of medical problems as well. But that is a different story.

i suggest that she should undergo some newborn test screening, for you to see how healthy she is as a premature baby.

Depending on how early she is lends to the problems to expect. My son was born four weeks early, barely making the cut for a premature child (by one week). Though he had oxygen and eating problems at birth and remained in the NICU for over two weeks, he is now (at three months)a healthy boy. He shows that sometimes, once you start on an early trend, you stay that way (in a good way). The doctors told me to expect him to hit developmental milestones according to his adjusted age (rather than at his real age, three months, he would hit three month milestones at four months - the date he would have been doing things according to my due date, when he was supposed to be born). But instead, my early bird has been hitting those milestones at what would be considered early for a normally aged child. Though I don't want him to grow up too fast, it reassures me that being born early hasn't hurt him. But, again, it depends on how early the child is.